Making pizza with the kids

I’m not a natural ‘cooking with kids’ kind of mum. I see images around the web of gorgeous mums and their gorgeous children doing lovely, patient things with cupcakes and it makes me sigh a little. There are three main reasons for that sigh.

So when I hear of all those delightful cooking sessions that talented ‘other mothers’ are having with their kids, it makes me feel like a bit of a dud. I endure the cooking with kids thing, I don’t love it.

Yet ‘cooking with mum’ is a much loved ritual for my children. I have been pouring and kneading and pounding and stirring with them since they were barely able to stand. Each week and sometimes twice a week we make something together; we have our favourites, but it’s a rule that we have to try something new at least once a month.

I do it and have done it religiously for years because if you asked my children what cooking together means to them, they would say.

There’s no contest, really. I may endure this weekly ritual, but by god I love it when it’s done. I love the joy on my children’s faces as they watch their creations rise in the oven. I love their delight in sticky hands and their sheer surprise at the mountains of mess. I love biting into a scruffy, lopsided pizza that little hands have carefully made absolutely perfect.

Roll up your sleeves (very, very high), don an apron (very, very long) and get stuck into some recipes with the kids in tow. Take the completely-off-the-charts messy bits outside (playing with a stack of flour in a bowl, that’s definitely an outside activity) and create something utterly wonderful.

Jamie’s pizza dough

We use a modified version of the Jamie Oliver recipe from his beautiful book Jamie at Home. The instructions below are my own, based on Jamie’s and including a bit of ‘kid patter’ to really get them fired up.

Wash your hands really, really well. Then take an extra big mixing bowl, a sifter and the flour outside. Sift the flour into the bowl and then sink your hands right in there. Feel how gorgeously soft it feels and how lovely it looks drifting around the bowl. Have a good old play around then eventually make a well in the middle.

Back inside, in a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well.

Using your hands, gently bring the flour from the sides into the well and swirl into the liquid.

Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in and when it all starts to come together, get in there with your (clean!) hands and pull it all into a squishy ball.

With the heels of your hands, knead it this way and knead it that way until you have a smooth, springy dough. Then play around with it a little more, just because.

Place the (by now completely exhausted) ball of dough into a large, flour-dusted bowl, sprinkle some flour on the top and cover with a clean, damp tea towel.

Put the covered bowl in a warm room and leave it in peace. No peeking! After an hour, take a look under the cover to see what happened. Oh look, the dough has doubled its size like magic and it looks just like mummy’s tummy.

Now put this big over-sized ball of dough on a clean, flour-dusted surface (straight onto the bench works for us) and ‘knock it back’ to get all the air out. Get in there and really punch it. It’s fun.

You can use the dough immediately, rolling it out as thin as you can for the pizzas. You can also wrap it in clingfilm and keep it in the fridge or even freezer until you need it. If you freeze it, defrost it in the fridge and then take it out to allow it to come to room temperature before using it.

Toppings

We favour a homemade tomato sauce on our pizzas. We make it with olive oil, garlic and (our secret ingredient) Nonno’s home-made bottled tomatoes. This passata – home-grown, hand-pressed, sprinkled with basil and hand-bottled – is the key ingredient in anything Italian I make and it always tastes the absolute biz.

If you really can’t be bothered, just buy your favourite bottled pasta sauce and use that.

Whether homemade or shop bought, pile on the tomatoey goodness; it sinks straight into the crust for extra yumminess.

You can put anything you like on your pizza, but if you crack an egg over the top, it’s called a ‘Pizza alla Bismark’ – how cool is that. There is actually no known recipe for Pizza alla Bismark, you just need to add an egg on top of any pizza to qualify. So, we always top the pizza with whatever we like (Lottie favours mozzarella, ham, pineapple and olives, which doesn’t really bear thinking about!) and then turn it into ‘a Bismark’ with an egg. Professional!

Comments

You’re a saint, Bron. I feel exactly the same way about cooking with the kids and so I avoid it like the plague. I know it gives them joy but I measure that against my rising blood pressure and I end up choosing my sanity instead. Even your adorable photos of messy little hands are giving me anxiety! xx

I’m going to do this with my girls in the school holidays (3 days away). Our oven is pretty crap though and I can’t wait till we can start building our dream home.. When we do move, I’m insisting we build a wood fire pizza oven.

I really want a wood fire oven too… one day, one day. Just get your oven up as hot as you can and leave the pizzas in for as long as it takes. If you do a Bismark, it might help to half cook the pizza and then top it with the egg later… x

I’m hearing you!! I really don’t love cooking with kids. The Virgo perfectionist in me has a mini break down nearly every time we get together. However, like you, I try to not let this stop me from letting them have a go. I aim for once a week. That’s about the most my blood pressure can manage. This is a great recipe. I use the Jamie Oliver pizza base recipe too and I let the kids go crazy with toppings. Love the egg on top. Haven’t done that before. Your kids are very lucky to have Italian grandparents. How beautiful!

Sorry Bron, I know it is all fancy and stuff but in my humble opinion eggs do not belong on pizzas. But I will give the pizza dough a go though, we have friends with a wood fired pizza oven (Bunnings Special) I am hungry just looking at your photos.